


Flower Tattoo

by CMeister



Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Duo POV, M/M, Romance, flower shop, tattoo shop
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2019-10-28 08:37:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17784107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CMeister/pseuds/CMeister
Summary: A connection between two lovestruck shop neighbors through flowers and a tattoo with a deeper meaning than what's inked on the surface.





	1. Flower Tattoo

**Author's Note:**

  * For [makoharued](https://archiveofourown.org/users/makoharued/gifts).



They are Forget Me Nots for sure. for sure. Ikuya gazes at the intricate floral tattoo the tattoo artist is currently working on. He rarely inked himself. But currently, he has a large sleeve of lined flowers. Gardenias, roses, and Forget Me Nots, it almost seems like a love confession. Ikuya turns his attention back to the flower arrangement he’s been working on for the past hour. His brother would be in to get the delivery soon and it isn’t complete yet. But, every so often, Ikuya sneaks a few peeks at the inked man next door. Ikuya finds himself getting more and more interested.

  


* * *

Hiyori knew very little about flowers, but he did know that he likes the way flowers look, being held delicately, in Ikuya's hands. As a tattoo artist, he always put a part of himself in his art work so he took great care inking the details of each flower onto his forearm. It started as a quick doodle that soon turned into a tattoo design. And now it’s being inked onto Hiyori’s skin. At the last minute, Hiyori spontaneously decided to look up the language of flowers, placing a message into the design.

  
It is a bold move, using the flowers to convey a specific meaning in his design, especially when the next door neighbor is a flower shop. Anyone over there will probably be able to take one look at the design and know exactly what he’s trying to say. But then again, maybe unconsciously, he wants them to know. Or at least a certain someone over there to know.

  
Hiyori actually knew of Ikuya long before Ikuya knew of him. Hiyori’s art school held competitions every season which were open to all university departments. They had dozens of categories from traditional media to digital media, 3D modeling to fashion, and everything in between. In his second year, Hiyori was in a creative rut when it came to his spring competition piece.

  
He decided to take a walk around the department building when he ran into an inspiring sight. Ikuya was sleeping soundly under a cherry blossom tree, the flowers falling gently all around him. Ikuya Kirishima was well known for being a pretty horticulture student who had a talent for flower arranging. His flower arrangements were always highly praised in the competitions and landed him in the top three on several occasions.

  
After that moment, Hiyori felt his eyes drawn to the teal-haired boy. It was only random luck that they happened to end up working next door to one another. Now and again, Hiyori would catch himself gazing into the flower shop where his crush worked not twelve feet away.

 

* * *

 Ikuya finally became aware of the tattoo artist after seeing him talk with Natsuya several months ago. There is something about him that immediately piques Ikuya’s interest. In the subsequent days, Ikuya would catch himself staring out the window that separates the two stores.

  
The tattoo artist is one of several in the store; however none of the others are as interesting to Ikuya. During breaks or down time, the tattoo artist would do light doodles and sketches. Ikuya had no drawing sense, but even from afar, they seemed familiar, like he had seen them before.

  
He is working on the flower tattoo again. Ikuya likes seeing updates on the sleeve, it feels a little intimate. The tattoo artist usually wears long sleeved clothing, thus, when he works on the sleeve it’s when there’s not many people around. Alone, except for the peeking Ikuya next door.

  
It takes two days to color the gardenias. Somehow the tattoo artist is able to capture the velvety texture of the big creamy-white flowers. It makes Ikuya almost want to reach out and touch them.  
The day the gardenias are completed is the day that Ikuya “officially” meets Hiyori Tono, the tattoo artist. Natsuya is actually the one to introduce them. Ikuya hadn’t noticed that Natsuya was looking over Ikuya’s shoulder until he hears Natsuya’s voice in his ear.

  
“Oh look, you can see Tono-kun from here.”

  
Ikuya nearly falls out of his chair at the sudden break in silence. “Tono-kun?”

  
“Hiyori Tono, he’s a tattoo artist over there.” Natsuya clarifies, waving dramatically. Through the window Ikuya could see Hiyori finally noticing Natsuya’s obnoxious waves. Hiyori gives a small wave back and then ducks quickly out of view.

 

“Natsuya-kun, why would you do that?” Hiyori sighs into his hands for the hundredth time that evening. Their meals haven’t even arrived yet and he is already on his second beer.

   


Natsuya laughs loudly. “You’re welcome!” He takes a large sip of his own beer, wiping foam off his lip. “If I left you alone, you’d still be watching him through the window.”

  
“I knew I shouldn’t have told you anything.” Hiyori mumbles as he contemplates drowning himself in beer that evening. Though, the alcoholic drink is the reason Hiyori was in this mess to begin with.

Natsuya was a friend of Hiyori’s senpai from university. His senpai was doing Hiyori a big favor and in return, all Hiyori had to do was send occasional updates about Natsuya. Natsuya, Hiyori quickly found out, was also very easy to get along with. Which was how Hiyori ended up confessing his undying love for Ikuya to Natsuya after several drinks one evening.

  
“Hey, this is a good thing.” Natsuya reassures as the server places two steaming bowls of ramen in front of them. “Now you can come over and talk to him whenever you want. It’s a win-win situation.”  


Hiyori stabs his noodles angrily. “And say what? ‘Hi, I’m friends with Natsuya-kun, do you want to be my friend too’?”  


“Why not?”  


“Because that sounds lame.”  


“It’s better than pining over him through a four by four window.” Natsuya says through a mouthful of noodles. “At least try talking to him, otherwise, I’ll tell him just how much in love you are with him!”  
Natsuya is as dramatic as always, but Hiyori also couldn’t take any chances.  


So the next day, Hiyori is praying to every god he can name as he steps past the threshold of the flower shop. His senses are immediately overwhelmed by the scents of the flowers and the sudden humidity that envelopes him.  


“Welcome, can I help you find something?” Ikuya asks, coming out of the back room. Hiyori could see recognition flash across Ikuya’s amber eyes. “Oh, you’re the tattoo artist, Natsuya’s friend.”  


“Ah, yeah.” Hiyori steps forward, hand out. “Hiyori Tono.”  


“Ikuya Kirishima.”  


Hiyori bites back the instinct to say _I know_ as they shake hands. Ikuya’s handshake is surprisingly strong and firm. And Hiyori really likes the way Ikuya’s hand feels in his.  


“Natsuya is out on delivery right now.” Ikuya informs.  


“Actually, I was hoping to get some references.” Hiyori says quickly, gesturing towards the flowers around them. “For a tattoo design, I figured since I have such a good reference here, I might as well use it.”  


“Oh, go right ahead.” Ikuya says, stepping to let Hiyori deeper into the shop. “We have a lot more in the nurseries out back.”  


“Thanks.” Hiyori takes his time looking at the flowers. Ikuya offers a small comment here and there about the flower Hiyori is hovering over. It’s a comfortable amount of silence and conversation.  
Hiyori stops at a small cluster of vibrant blue flowers. They’re the same ones he had tattooed on his arm.  


“Those are Forget Me Nots,” Ikuya says from the counter next to him. “They’re not that well known around here, plus they’re poisonous if you eat them.”

  
Hiyori chuckles quietly. “Well, I still like them, poisonous or not.” Hiyori admires the simple color combination. Six small blue petals with a bright yellow center. He unconsciously runs a hand through the cluster, the petals brushing softly against his fingers. “Ah sorry, I didn’t mean to touch them.”  


Now it’s Ikuya’s turn to laugh. “It’s fine. It won’t hurt them.” It’s a quiet laugh, but Hiyori could see the remaining smile on Ikuya’s face.

“Cute.”  


“Hm?”  


Hiyori blushes, waving his hands around trying to maintain a grip on his last few braincells. “Ah~ the flowers, they’re cute.”  


Ikuya gives him an amused look. And Hiyori feels as if he might actually loose the rest of his braincells. The bell above the shop door twinkles as someone else enters their little moment.  


“Welcome!” Ikuya says over Hiyori’s shoulder. “Can I help you find anything today?”  


Hiyori is uncertain if he should stay any longer. Their conversation is clearly over and there is no real point in hanging around awkwardly. He gives a curt nod to Ikuya before heading back next door.  
Over the next few weeks, Hiyori falls into the routine of heading over to the flower shop on his breaks. Ikuya seems to brighten a bit when Hiyori walks in, or maybe that’s what Hiyori’s brain is trying to make him think.  


Ikuya is easy to talk to. Hiyori learns that Ikuya has a bit of a sweet tooth but can’t cook or bake to save his life. Which Hiyori thinks is the cutest thing in the entire world. And Hiyori finds himself revealing quite a bit about himself as well. How he prefers coffee over tea, how he only talks to his parents out of filial duty, and how he has taken up baking with the local mothers’ association.  


“You’ve been going next door a lot these days.” Hiyori’s co-worker, Kisumi, notes one day. “Someone catch your eye?”  


“You could say that.” Hiyori says, cleaning his instruments carefully. He doesn’t really mind Kisumi. Out of all his co-workers, Kisumi is the one who seems genuinely friendly and open-minded. Plus, their work stations are next to each other so Hiyori really has no choice.  


“Is it that, Natsuya-san person?” Kisumi asks, pulling his stool closer to Hiyori’s work station, obviously finding the conversation interesting.  


Hiyori nearly drops the tattoo tube he’s cleaning. “Huh? Of course not.” He has to quickly send Nao-senpai a mental apology, otherwise his conscious wouldn’t feel clear.  


Kisumi seems even more intrigued. “Oh, then who? You’ve never taken much of an interest in other people.”  


Hiyori glances out the window into the flower shop. Ikuya is working on some sort of arrangement involving roses and probably a thousand tiny white baby’s breath. Kisumi makes a quiet humming noise. “Shut up.”  


“I didn’t say anything.” Kisumi laughs. He gives Hiyori a knowing look. “He’s the reason why you’ve been working on that tattoo as well, right? I was wondering where your sudden interest in colors other than black and white came from.”  


Hiyori isn’t surprised that Kisumi is able to put things together. Despite his airy personality, Kisumi is very in-tune with other people’s feelings. That and he is much better at doing detailed work in color than Hiyori is.  


Hiyori tugs his sleeve down just in case. He isn’t ready for the entire world to know about it just yet. “Well, now you know.”  


Kisumi laughs again. “I think this lavender color looks best.” He slides a color swatch from under a pile of other swatches Hiyori has littered all over his desk. “Let me know if you need any help.”  


Each rose is roughly the size of a bottle cap. The only problem is that Hiyori’s design has six roses scatter across his forearm. Six annoyingly detailed, _botanically correct_ roses that all needed to be colored.  


Hiyori takes only a second and turns to smile at Kisumi. “Kisumi, do you have some free time later?”

 

* * *

Ikuya could smell pistachios coming from the small little white box in Hiyori’s hands. “Don’t look too eager, I’ll be sad if I disappoint you.” Hiyori says carefully setting the box on the counter.  


“You won’t.” Ikuya says easily. He carefully lifts the lid and reveals a dainty palm sized pistachio cake covered in a drizzle of white icing. He immediately starts salivating. “It looks amazing.”  


Hiyori mutters a soft thanks and hands Ikuya a fork. “Go ahead.”  


Ikuya doesn’t need to be told twice. “Thanks!” the cake is buttery and soft. The pistachio flavor is light and compliments the hints of vanilla in the cake. The icing is white chocolate, but not overtly sweet. “It’s delicious.”  


Hiyori sighs in relief. “Good. I was worried.”  


The bell above the door rings and they both turn to see an energetic Natsuya walk in. “Ah, Tono-kun, you’re here.”  


“Good morning, Natsuya-kun.” Hiyori greets.  


Ikuya could see Natsuya eyeing the cake. “You can’t have any.” Ikuya immediately puts a protective arm around the cake. “Hiyori made it for me.”  


Natsuya smirks, tossing a casual arm around Hiyori’s shoulders. “Tono-kun, how come you didn’t bake me a cake? I want to taste your cakes too.”  


Hiyori gives Natsuya an inquiring look. “I didn’t know you liked sweets.”  


“I do.” Ikuya wonders what Natsuya is up to. Natsuya didn’t particularly like or dislike sweets. He just liked eating in general.  


“I could make you something if you really want.” Hiyori says slowly.  


“I want one.” Natsuya confirms. “Chocolate, please.”  


Hiyori nods slowly as if he’s trying to figure out if Natsuya’s plotting something. Which he probably is, if Ikuya knows anything about his brother.  


Natsuya finally releases Hiyori, bumping his elbow against Hiyori’s left arm. Ikuya notices the painful wince Hiyori makes. “Is something wrong with your arm?”  


“Ah, no.” Hiyori says quickly, tugging at the edge of his sleeve. “I just bumped it this morning setting some stuff up at the shop.”  


Ikuya doesn’t miss the brief look that Natsuya and Hiyori share. Ikuya can’t help but wonder why Hiyori is hiding the tattoo from him. Clearly Natsuya knows about it. And they are pretty good friends at this point too.  


“Natsuya, I have another delivery for you to get on.” Ikuya says pulling the delivery slip out from a drawer. The flowers didn’t actually have to leave for a little while, but Ikuya finds Natsuya particularly annoying at the moment.  


“Sure thing.” Natsuya plucks the slip from Ikuya’s hand. He quickly scans the contents and gives a quick wave to Hiyroi on his way out. “See ya later, Tono-kun.”  


Hiyori waves back at Natsuya as he picks up the packaged arrangement and heads back to his scooter. “I should get going too. See you tomorrow!”  


Ikuya waves them both off. His mood suddenly sour even with the pistachio cake. “Stupid Natsuya.”  


Over the next few days, Natsuya makes it a point to ‘just happen to return to the shop whenever Hiyori is there’. Ikuya isn’t exactly sure why he’s so bothered by it. The three of them get along just fine, but he’s still irritated by it.  


“Natsuya, what are you planning?” Ikuya asks as they’re cleaning things up for the day. As usual, Natsuya had ‘finished his delivery early and wanted a break before his next stop’ and then spent the rest of his break hanging off of Hiyori’s shoulder.  


Ikuya pretends not to notice that Hiyori, who doesn’t particularly like people, doesn’t seem to mind physical contact with Natsuya. Ikuya also tries to not notice that Hiyori usually leaves soon after Natsuya does. There’s no proof of correlation, but there is also no proof that there isn’t.  


Natsuya looks up from the potted plant he’s been tending to. “What do you mean?”  


“With Hiyori, the two of you.” Ikuya tries to explain his train of thought, even though he doesn’t completely understand it himself. “You guys have been really close lately.”  


“Really? You think so?” Natsuya rubs his chin. “He’s a good kid. I like him.”  


“Oh.”  


“I’m glad you two are friends.” Natusya continues. “I didn’t really think you guys would get along so quickly, but you two actually have a lot in common. Plus there’s the mutual benefit.”  


“Mutual benefit?”  


“You help me, I help you type of thing.” Ikuya wants to ask exactly what this _mutual benefit_ thing is. “Don’t worry too much about it. As long as you and Hiyori are on good terms, then everything is fine.”  


Ikuya looks at him quizzically. Sometimes Natsuya talks in this way that Ikuya doesn’t completely understand. Maybe because his brother is on a different social level or because there really is no understanding him.  


The bell above the door jingles and Hiyori pokes his head through the door. He looks uncharacteristically nervous about something. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything. Can I talk to you for a minute, Natsuya-kun?”  


“Oh, sure, what’s up?” Natsuya gets up, wiping his hands off on his jeans. Hiyori motions for Natsuya to come to the door.  


They talk in a hushed whisper just outside the door. Ikuya isn’t able to make out anything that they’re saying, but he does see Hiyori rub the back of his neck nervously, which is uncharacteristic of him.  
Hiyori then passes a slightly crumpled letter over to Natsuya. Natsuya takes a look at the front and breaks out into the biggest smile ever. He grabs Hiyori into a headlock bear hug. Hiyori awkwardly reciprocates the hug, but he seems happy.  


Ikuya can feel his mood begin to sour for some reason. He turns his attention to vigorously scrubbing the nonexistent stains off the counter. He can hear Natsuya’s laughter through the door and knowing that he’s having a nice conversation with Hiyori makes Ikuya’s mood worsen.  


Ikuya’s mood isn’t much better the next few days either. He leaves the closed sign up at the time Hiyori usually visits. Ikuya checks his watch. Hiyori should have seen the sign by now and he hasn’t heard Natsuya enter the store, so he quietly opens the storeroom door and walks into the main store.  


Through the window Ikuya could see Hiyori talking with a pink haired co-worker. Hiyori’s sleeve is pulled up to reveal the floral tattoo. Ikuya could see the redness around the little purple roses. It must have hurt when Natsuya bumped him the other day.  


The pink haired man selects a few different pinks and purples, mixing them together, and indicates for Hiyori to lay on his workbench. The pink haired man touches up the colors while talking cheerfully at Hiyori.  


Ikuya suddenly wants to go over there and tell the other man to not touch the tattoo. Somehow it felt like it was there’s. Hiyori’s and his. Ikuya is the one who has been there since the beginning. Since the design phase, the lining, the coloring, Ikuya was there for it all.  


“What am I doing?” Ikuya asks to the empty flower shop. He goes to trim the flowers in the window display. His mind wondering at the mindless work. Of course Hiyori’s co-worker would know about the floral tattoo. Naturally Hiyori would want someone’s input about the positions of the flowers and the colors. It isn’t like Hiyori is making the tattoo for Ikuya or anything like that.  


After all, Hiyori is in love with Natsuya. The thought makes Ikuya freeze up. It isn’t something Ikuya liked to think about normally. It is painfully clear how close Hiyori and Natsuya are. Ikuya never asked, but he knew that the two of them met up often after work for meals and drinks.  


It makes Ikuya jealous. And he’s aware that he’s jealous. Jealous that Hiyori would brighten when seeing Natsuya at the shop. Jealous that they are able to have such easy conversations with each other. Jealous at how accepting Hiyori is of Natsuya’s touching. Ikuya is jealous. Jealous because he likes Hiyori.  


Ikuya accidentally cuts an entire blooming rose off. “Ah shit.” He gingerly picks up the flower. The stem is still long enough to make a small vase arrangement out of it. But Ikuya has no motivation to even work on arrangements.  


It takes a moment of contemplation before Ikuya sends out a quick text to Natsuya that he isn’t feeling good and will close the shop early. There are no orders that need to be filled so Ikuya quickly puts his tools away and leaves without a second glance at the tattoo shop.  


It’s strange being back at their shared apartment when the sun is still shining in the sky. He usually has to stay late to close everything up or to finish filling orders for the next day. Ikuya shrugs off his jacket and tosses it over a chair. He could smell crushed roses in the dusty apartment.  


In his jacket pocket is the snipped rose. Ikuya must have put it in his pocket earlier. The rose is sadly beginning to wilt after being crushed. Ikuya fills a glass with water and sets the rose inside. He sits at the table and stares at the rose.  


A part of him just wants to throw it away and never look at a rose again. They all remind him of the tiny purple roses dotting Hiyori’s arm. But that is hard to do when Ikuya works in a flower shop and every other person requests a bouquet made with roses. Plus, there is no way that Ikuya could ever bring himself to harm his flowers. They never did anything to him.  


His phone dings with a text notification. It’s Natsuya wondering if Ikuya needs anything. Natsuya is the last person Ikuya wants to see right now. Ikuya contemplates just ignoring the text message, but he knows that would lead to more texts and phone calls. Ikuya types a quick message back and heads into the kitchen.  


Unfortunately, since neither he nor Natsuya have any cooking ability there is literally nothing in their fridge. Nothing except for a couple of tea drinks and Natsuya’s beer.  
Ikuya puts his jacket back on and settles to get a dinner bento from Food Mart.   


He gets almost halfway done with his dinner when the door slams open and Natsuya walks in dramatically. “Ikuya are you feeling ok?”  


“Yeah, I’m fine.” Ikuya says turning his attention back to his food.  


“Well, I bought some medicine just in case.” Natsuya says rustling through a shopping bag. He also has some electrolytic drinks and instant soup packets. “Oh, and Tono-kun asked me to give you this.”  


Ikuya nearly chokes on a piece of rice at the sudden mention. Natsuya brings over a small plastic container. “Hiyori asked you to give this to me?” Ikuya repeats lifting the lid. Inside is a small slice of cake.  


“Yeah, he said that you seemed really busy these past few days. And today you left before he could give it to you.” Natsuya explains putting the other stuff away. “You should make up with him.”  


“Huh?” Ikuya is caught off guard. “What do you mean?”  


“Well, you seemed really happy before.” Natsuya explains leaning against the kitchen counter. “He would come over all the time and you guys would talk in the store. But he hasn’t been over lately and you’ve been hiding in the storeroom. So I figured you guys had an argument.”  


Natsuya was much more observant than Ikuya had given him credit for. “We didn’t really have an argument.” They would have had to talk in order to have an argument. And Ikuya has been avoiding talking to Hiyori.  


“Alright then, make sure everything is ok between you two. It’s bad to leave things unsaid.” Natsuya says. Ikuya is surprised by the sagely advice that came out of Natsuya’s mouth. “I think he’s worried about you.”  


In some twisted way, Ikuya is glad that Hiyori is worried about him. “Thanks.” He goes to the drawers to get a fork and notices a nice paper bag sitting on the counter. It has the logo from a rather famous craft store in the area printed on it. And it is definitely not something that Natsuya would usually buy for himself. “What’s this?” Ikuya starts to reach for the bag before Natsuya practically dives across the counter to snatch it out of Ikuya’s grasp.  


“This is nothing! Don’t worry about it.” Natsuya says, hiding the bag behind his back.  


“Suspicious.” Ikuya tries to peak around Natsuya, who nimbly dodges out of Ikuya’s way and down the hall towards his bedroom. Ikuya’s suspicions are at an all-time high.  


Ikuya doesn’t see Natsuya when he wakes up in the morning. Nor is Natsuya at the shop when Ikuya opens up. The weird Natsuya movements make Ikuya even more suspicious. Especially since Natsuya is hardly someone who could keep a secret to himself for very long. Ikuya will have to use some force to get Natsuya talking if he’s going this far to keep something from Ikuya.  


At least Natsuya had the good sense to set out the delivery slips and daily pick up tickets for Ikuya to review first thing. After taking the afternoon off the day before Ikuya is slightly behind in work. But it’s nothing a few hours of grinding can’t fix.  


Next door, Ikuya could see the first few tattoo artists coming in to set up. Hiyori’s station is still empty. Ikuya makes a mental note to thank Hiyori for the cake. Ikuya can’t help but smile at the thought of Hiyori making a special cake for him.  


A rattling motor breaks through Ikuya’s thought process. Without even looking up, Ikuya knows that it’s Natsuya’s rundown delivery scooter. The dirty old thing is an accident waiting to happen, but since it’s still running, Natsuya won’t put the money into getting a new one.  


Ikuya looks up at the door, expecting Natsuya to walk through any minute. Instead he sees Natsuya mouthing something about going next door real quick before his deliveries. Ikuya waves him off. “Just hurry up!”  


Ikuya watches through the window as Natsuya finally comes into view. Not surprisingly the other tattoo artists seem to know him. They all easily chat with Natsuya before calling someone out of view over. Ikuya is surprised to see Hiyori come over.  


Everything appears to happen in slow motion. Hiyori smiles at Natsuya, a real smile too, not one of his polite smiles. They chat about something that Ikuya’s imagination will probably fill in later. And then Natsuya hands Hiyori the bag. The paper bag that he wouldn’t let Ikuya look at yesterday.  


It is a present for Hiyori, which was why Natsuya didn’t let Ikuya look at it. Ikuya wants to look away from the window, but his body won’t move. Ikuya can’t help but watch as Hiyori blushes and accepts the gift graciously. Natsuya quickly finishes his conversations and leaves the shop soon afterwards.  


Ikuya is still wrapped up in his own thoughts when Natsuya finally gets back to their shop. “Hello? Ikuya? Are you ok?” Natsuya’s waving a hand in front of Ikuya’s face.  


“I’m fine.” Ikuya swats the hand away from him. “You took your time over there. Did you need something from them?”  


“Not really.” Natsuya replies checking the arrangement tags Ikuya had set on the counter. Once he’s done checking the tags, he starts loading the arrangements onto his scooter. It takes several trips and on the last few Ikuya finally notices the cheerful tune Natsuya’s been humming.  


“Did something good happen to you?” Ikuya asks curiously as he trims some potted plants around the counter. He’s pretty sure it has to do with what happened in the tattoo shop but he wants to hear it from Natsuya himself.  


Ikuya knew deep down that he had no chance with Hiyori. After all, when compared to Natsuya, Ikuya was just a gloomy loner who would rather spend time grooming plants than going out to social gatherings. Knowing all of this, Ikuya still somehow got his hopes up. And if Natsuya admits it, then Ikuya will have a reason to squash those feelings before he does something regrettable.  


Natsuya thinks for a bit. “Not really.” He says after a long pause. “A good friend is returning from abroad later this week, I’m hoping to catch up with him sometime.”  


“Oh, I see.” Ikuya is disappointed. Maybe even hurt, no, definitely hurt. Hurt that his own brother wouldn’t confide in him about his feelings. “You better get going, I don’t need you being late with those.”  


Natsuya gives Ikuya a comedic salute and heads out. His scooter makes a horrendous rattling sound as it springs to life and Natsuya zips down the street.

 

* * *

 Hiyori isn’t sure why he’s feeling restless. It could be because he’s being used as a pack mule between two annoying lovebirds. Or maybe because he hasn’t had a decent conversation with Ikuya in weeks. Sometimes he would catch Ikuya outside the flower shop, tending to the flowers that are basking in the sun. But their conversations never go past pleasantries or passing comments about the weather.  


Ikuya keeps the store’s closed sign up during his breaks and Hiyori is getting the sneaking feeling that Ikuya’s doing it on purpose. Perhaps he noticed Hiyori’s feelings and this is Ikuya’s way of gently putting Hiyori down. Of course, Natsuya says otherwise.  


“Have you decided what you’re going to do when this tattoo is done?” Kisumi asks, his fluffy pink hair bobbing as he tilts his head to get at another oddly placed flower. “You just had to make this difficult.”  


Hiyori laughs, trying not move his arm too much. “I haven’t give it much thought.”  


“That’s a lie.” Kisumi says automatically. He wipes some of the excess ink off of Hiyori’s arm. He takes the moment to also pinch the underside of Hiyori’s bicep. “It’s you we’re talking about after all.”  


“I’m starting to regret this.” Hiyori says rubbing the sore spot on his arm. “When did having you ink my tattoo become an interrogation?”  


“When I found out about your not so secret crush on the flower boy next door.” Kisumi says taking back Hiyori’s arm, his tattooing instrument buzzing to go. “But now everything makes sense. This tattoo, your little crush, the flower shop next door.”  


Hiyori just knows that Kisumi has the biggest smug smile on his face right now. Hiyori sighs. “You’re lucky that I can’t do this myself. Otherwise I wouldn’t be here and you’d still be in the dark about everything.” The downside of having Kisumi color Hiyori’s tattoo is the hours of laying on his back and being subjected to Kisumi’s questions.  


Kisumi chuckles. “But seriously. When are you going to confess?”  


“At this rate, never.” Hiyori admits. “I’ve basically been rejected at this point. Why rub salt in my wounds?”  


“It’s not like he’s actually rejected you.”  


“Oh really? How do you explain the sudden cold shoulder treatment? Why else would he be ignoring me?”  


For once, Kisumi doesn’t have a quick reply. “I think you need to actually talk to him. If you leave things as is, one day it’ll be too late to try and make things right.”  


Hiyori mulls over Kisumi’s statement. The buzzing from the tattooing instrument fills the silence between them. The store usually has a background buzz of light conversations, but with it being after work, there’s only the soft buzzing of Kisumi’s instrument.  


The atmosphere gives Hiyori plenty of time to immerse himself in his own thoughts. It isn’t a stretch to think that this is just Ikuya’s way of gently rejecting Hiyori. But Kisumi’s words give Hiyori the slightest bit of hope. Of course that doesn’t mean that Ikuya won’t just reject Hiyori when he actually talks to him.  


Kisumi reaches over suddenly and flicks Hiyori’s glasses, pulling him out of his thoughts. “Stop it. You’re overthinking things again. I can hear your thoughts all the way over here.” He gives Hiyori an attempt at a stern look.  


“I’ll try.” Hiyori readjusts his glasses and smiles. “It’s a bit hard when all I can do is lay here and stare at the ceiling.”  


“I’m putting in overtime for this, so I don’t want to listen to your negative thoughts anymore.” Kisumi says, giving Hiyori another playful whack.  


“Well, wake me up when you’re done.” Hiyori says, settling in for a long couple of hours on the bench. The Forget Me Nots are not the largest flowers in the design, but there are six of them. In the moment, Hiyori decided to just let his imagination go free. But in retrospect, maybe he let his imagination go a little too free.  


Hiyori can feel his eyelids getting heavy after a while of just listening to the familiar buzz in the unusually quiet room. Ever since Ikuya started to refuse Hiyori’s company, Hiyori hasn’t slept that well. His mind kept racing through different possibilities about why.  


In his dream, Hiyori is back at university. He is walking amongst some flowering trees, the wind is gently blowing the petals all over the place. And in the middle of the scene is Ikuya. His dark teal hair pops against the pale petals fluttering around him. His clothing is plain and stained with dirt and grass, but he is still stunning in Hiyori’s eyes. Hiyori almost wishes he could stay in the dream forever. But the pressure in his arm reminds him that the real Ikuya is out there and Hiyori wants to see him. No, needs to see him.  


“Wake up, sleepy head.” Kisumi rudely shakes Hiyori out of his dream world. “You’re all done here.”  


Hiyori groans as he struggles to get up. He groggily notices that Kisumi has taken the liberty to apply the initial layer of aftercare ointment. “What time is it?” It is completely dark outside now so it must be long after closing time.  


“It’s time for me to head home.” Kisumi says, cracking his back and neck loudly. “Here are some bandages. Don’t forget to wash it in the morning. Put on some ointment, you better tell me if you start reacting weird to it.”  


“Of course.” Hiyori wraps the bandage around his arm. The nap was refreshing, but it made him realize just how much of sleep he’s missed out on. “Sorry for keeping you out so late. Please apologize to Shiina for me.”  


“You could apologize to him yourself.” Kisumi smiles through a yawn. “I’m sure he’d just love that.”  


Hiyori rolls his eyes. “I’m sure he would.” He packs away his equipment and wipes down the workbench. Since they were working after hours, there isn’t much else that needs to be put away before they leave.  


Kisumi is patiently waiting at the door for Hiyori. “All set?”  


“You didn’t have to wait for me.”  


“I’m already late, a couple more minutes won’t matter.” Kisumi shrugs as they head towards the station. The evening rush is long over but it’s still a couple hours before the businessmen doing overtime get off. “I figured you’d need some encouragement.”  


“I’m going to do it.” Hiyori confirms. “I am going to talk to him tomorrow and clear the air between us.”  


Kisumi whistles softly. “How surprising. I thought you would need some more pushing.”  


“If I don’t do something now, it’ll be too late, right?”  


Kisumi chuckles. “Glad to hear that you’re actually listening.”  


After splitting from Kisumi at his stop, Hiyori is slowly coming down from his initial bold high and anxiety is slowly setting in. Hiyori doesn’t have an appetite for dinner so he takes a quick shower, making sure to not get his bandaged arm wet. And tries to get back to sleep.  


The shower was not a good idea. It refreshed all of Hiyori’s senses and now he’s wide awake. He’s wide awake, staring at the ceiling, and his imagination is going wild. What if Ikuya is disgusted with Hiyori? What if Ikuya hates Hiyori? What if all along, Ikuya has just been trying to be polite and Hiyori took it the wrong way? What if Ikuya is already in love with someone else? What if Ikuya already has a boyfriend? Or girlfriend?  


Hiyori turns and looks at the glowing light of his alarm clock. It reads just past midnight. Hiyori sighs and tosses back the covers. He reaches out to the desk for his glasses and heads for the bathroom. Since he isn’t going to sleep anytime soon, he might as well be productive and clean his tattoo.  


He is also a bit anxious to see Kisumi’s handiwork. Hiyori carefully peels off the bandage. He turns the hot water on and gently rinses his arm under the faucet. After patting his arm dry, Hiyori focuses in on the newly added details.  


Kisumi’s tattooing style is effortlessly complex. Somehow he’s able to build up large amounts of details through shadows and highlights. But no detail is out of place or appears to be too much for the design. And the colors. The colors Kisumi chose complimented the purples and creams from the other two flowers. Hiyori is going to have to buy Kisumi more than just one dinner for the amount of work that he did.  


Hiyori smiles as he looks at the finished tattoo. The design is balanced and has great flow from top to bottom. The colors are eye-catching. And it fits his arm like it belongs there. Beyond all the technical aspects of the tattoo, it is a piece of art. It evokes emotion in him and hopefully, in Ikuya as well.  


Hiyori rubs on a thin layer of lotion and wraps it in clingwrap. He takes on last look at it before heading back to bed. He has a reassured feeling about the conversation he’s going to have in a couple hours.  


When Hiyori wakes up to his alarm, he’s almost convinced that he dreamt up the previous day’s events until he looks down at his tattoo. Seeing all the colored flowers calms him enough to get through his morning routine. It’s when he begins his walk towards the station does he start to worry again.  


He can’t help but feel a bit of dread about what’s to come. There is a lot at stake with this one conversation and Hiyori is definitely not the best conversationalist. By the time he makes it to the store, his heart’s beating so fast it feels like it might fall out of his chest at any moment.  


“Ah, Hiyori-kun, good morning.” His manager greets.  


Hiyori is barely able to get out a greeting before his manager starts listing out tasks that need to be completed before they open. He slides a slip of paper onto Hiyori’s workbench. “There was a message left on the answering machine for you. It’s from a Serizawa Nao-san. He said he couldn’t reach your personal phone so he called here. He wants you to call him back about some painting thing.”  


“Thanks.” Hiyori drops his bag on the chair and immediately sends a text to Nao. Nao hadn’t mentioned anything about returning to Tokyo. Or being back in Japan for that matter. Their last conversation was about Natsuya and how Nao was going to threaten prolonging his trip if Natsuya’s antics keep up.  


Nao responds almost immediately. _I’ll stop by the store later this morning. I have good news for you._  


Now Hiyori is sure his heart is going to fall out of his chest. Today is going to be a good day for sure. All the stars are aligning toward that.  


“You seem to be in a good mood.” Kisumi says, just getting into work. “Don’t tell me I missed your dramatic confession!”  


“It’s not that.” Hiyori says, his happy mood couldn’t be dampened by Kisumi’s teasing. “I finally have good news about my paintings that Nao-senpai’s been working on for me.”  


“Eh? Nao-san is back in Tokyo?”  


“I only just heard about it today too.” Hiyori explains. He texts his workplace address to Nao and puts his phone aside. “At least, Natsuya-kun won’t be bothering us for a while.”  


Hiyori glances through the window, looking into the flower shop. Natsuya appears to be teasing his brother about something. Ikuya seems to be in a better mood than he has been earlier in the week.  
Hiyori itches to go next door and finally talk to Ikuya. But there is work waiting for him and he could tell that Ikuya is busy starting the day’s orders. Hiyori is already starting to count down the hours until his break. It couldn’t come soon enough today.  


“Hiyori-kun.” Hiyori looks up from his work to see his manager standing over his desk. “Go over there and sort whatever you have going on with them out.”  


The words coming out of his mouth aren’t registering in Hiyori’s head. What happened to his pain in the butt, super strict manager?  


“Don’t look at me like that.” His manager says, which meant Hiyori is probably grinning like an idiot. “You’ve been working even slower than usual. And you won’t stop looking out the window. It’s driving me crazy.”  


“Yes, sir.” Hiyori says, already getting up. “Right away, sir.”  


“You better be ready to make up for—“  


Hiyori is already out the door before his manager could finish his threat. Within a few strides Hiyori is at the flower shop door. Through the glass panes, Hiyori could see that there are no other customers and Ikuya seems to be lazily rearranging the vase of flowers sitting by the cashier.  


Hiyori takes a deep breath, trying to calm his beating heart, and pulls the door open. The bell above the door jingles, indicating his entrance. “Welcome, how can I help you today?” Ikuya says automatically before finally looking up.  


Hiyori tries not to notice the way Ikuya’s face falls slightly when he realizes that it’s Hiyori. “Um, I was wondering if we could talk, I have something I want to tell you.”  
Ikuya’s face falls even more. “I don’t want to hear it.”  


“Eh?” The shock of Ikuya’s statement numbs the initial pain in his heart. “What do you mean?”  


“I mean, I’m happy for you.” Ikuya explains carefully. He’s looking everywhere except at Hiyori directly. “I just thought that you would have told me about it. I thought we were good enough friends that you and Natsuya wouldn’t have to go sneaking behind my back.”  


And now Hiyori is confused. What did Natsuya-kun have to do with any of this? “Wait, what are you talking about? We’re not hiding anything.”  


“I saw you two!” Ikuya yells. It’s the first time Hiyori has ever heard him raise his voice in such an angry manner. “I can see your worktable through this window. I know about your tattoo.”  


“You do?” Hiyori grips his arm where the tattoo is. Things are not going the way he wanted them to go. He isn’t even fully sure where the conversation is going, but his heart is hurting in a way that he doesn’t want it to.  


“Those flowers you chose. There’s a reason you chose them, right? They aren’t random. Nothing you do is ever random.”  


And now comes the moment that Hiyori has been dreading. The worst possible scenario he could have thought of is coming true right before his eyes.  


“I know that you’re in love with Natsuya.”  


“Wait, what?” Hiyori’s heart can’t keep up with the sudden changes in the conversation. At the moment, he isn’t sure if he wants to laugh or cry.  


Now is Ikuya’s turn to look confused. At least he’s finally looking at Hiyori. “You’re in love with Natsuya.” He repeats slowly.  


“What? No.” Hiyori immediately feels like he needs to wash out his mouth and take a sanitizing shower. “What? How? Why would you think that?” Hurt, Hiyori’s emotions are going to settle with being hurt.  


“Eh? You’re really close with Natsuya and you’re making a flower tattoo, and he works in a flower shop.” Ikuya babbles out, his initial anger dissipating into a slow panic. “He was being really secretive about that present he gave you.”  


“That wasn’t for me.” Hiyori says finally starting put the pieces together. “You thought I designed this tattoo for Natsuya-kun?” He pulls up his sleeve to show Ikuya his tattoo. There are angry crescent fingernail marks from where Hiyori gripped his arm too tightly. “Do you think that Natsuya-kun knows enough about flowers to know what it means?”  


The panic is settling on Ikuya’s face. A soft blush is also rising on his cheeks. Hiyori could tell that Ikuya is suddenly reassessing each interaction he’s had with Hiyori. Hiyori wracks his brain, trying to think of something to say when the bell above the door jingles.  


“Hiyori-kun, I heard you’d be in here.”  


Hiyori turns to face his senpai. “This is the person Natsuya-kun’s in love with.” He exclaims suddenly, pointing a dramatic finger at Nao.  


Nao looks taken aback by the sudden proclamation. “Is that what Natsuya’s been saying about me?” He has a dangerous smile on his face. Hiyori sends a small prayer out to Natsuya, he might not survive this.  


“Eh? The one Natsuya’s in love with...” Ikuya trails off looking from Nao to Hiyori and then back at Nao. Ikuya rubs his knuckles against his forehead. “The one Natsuya’s in love with is…”  


“Nao. Serizawa Nao.” Nao supplies helpfully. His smile turns soft. “I’m Hiyori-kun’s senpai from art school. And you must be Ikuya-kun?”  
Ikuya manages to nod. “So, my brother and Nao-san are?”  


“Complicated.” Nao finishes. “I seem to be interrupting something so I’ll take my leave quickly.” He hands Hiyori an official looking envelope. “Your ‘Seven Color Petals’ sold, congratulations.”  


“Oh, thank you.” Hiyori takes the envelope. It’s from the office of the art show the paintings had been submitted to. And Hiyori’s head starts spinning again. “Thank you so much, Nao-senpai.”  


Nao claps him on the shoulder, giving him a tight squeeze. “Don’t mention it. You did all the work after all. Those paintings were brilliant. I just accompanied them.”  


“’Seven Color Petals’.” Ikuya repeats. “I’ve heard of that somewhere before.”  


“Oh really?” Nao asks excitedly. He slips past Hiyori and begins to walk over to the counter. “Hiyori won an art competition with this painting one year and then he painted several companion paintings which I’ve been taking on an exhibition tour. Do you want to see?”  


Ikuya nods his head excitedly.  


“Ah, wait.” Hiyori reaches futilely out to try to stop Nao from showing Ikuya pictures of the aforementioned paintings.  


“Oh.” Is the only thing Ikuya says when Nao shows him the pictures on his cell phone. “I was right, I have seen this before.” He looks up at Hiyori. “We went to the same university, did you know that?”  


Hiyori opts not to answer.  


“But, did you know that this isn’t the original one he painted?” Nao says tapping away on his phone. And Hiyori knows that Nao is getting him back for his earlier comment. “This is what the painting looked like originally.”  


Hiyori wants to bury his head in a potted plant. The original painting was a side profile of Ikuya standing in a whirlwind of seven colored sakura blossom petals. Hiyori had thought that even a side profile made it too obvious who the subject was, so he had changed the painting to feature a faceless female instead.  


Hiyori can feel Ikuya staring at him. “Hiyori?”  


“I’ll leave it to him to explain why.” Nao says, giving Hiyori a supportive pat as he passes by on his way out. “I’ll meet up with you later to talk about the sale.”  


After Nao leaves, a painful silence settles in the room. “Hiyori, the person in your original painting was me, right?” Ikuya says finally. “Your painting was of me.”  


Hiyori hums in affirmation, not trusting his voice to not betray his internal turmoil.  


“How come you changed it?”  


Hiyori can’t help but chuckle. Typical Ikuya to do the unexpected. “I guess I didn’t think you’d want people to think that you were friends with someone gloomy like me.”  


“I wouldn’t have minded.” Ikuya says confidently. “I mean, we’re friends now. And you’re not gloomy.”  


“I don’t know if I want to laugh or cry now.” Hiyori sighs, running a hand through his hair. “I feel like I wasted so much time dancing around everything.” He feels like a tremendous weight has been lifted from his shoulders.  


Ikuya steps out from behind the counter and walks towards Hiyori until they’re standing face to face. Ikuya reaches for Hiyori’s tattooed arm. “Then the person you made this tattoo for is?”  


Hiyori closes the gap between them even more and leans his head down to rest against Ikuya’s. Ikuya doesn’t pull back, which Hiyori takes as a good sign. “Do you really need to ask?”  


Through the fringes of Ikuya’s bangs, Hiyori could see the bright blush that is spreading across Ikuya’s cheeks. “I really like you.” Ikuya finally whispers and Hiyori almost thinks he hallucinated it.  


“I think I figured that out.” Hiyori says teasingly. He hopes that Ikuya doesn’t notice the slight shake his voice or the fact that he is turning equally red.  


“Shut up.” Ikuya punches him in the arm. They finally take a step back from each other. Ikuya maintains a hold of Hiyori’s arm, which he really doesn’t mind. Hiyori can’t help but think that Ikuya looks really cute with the remnants of a blush on his cheeks.  


Hiyori wonders if it’s too early to be wanting to kiss him. He really wants to kiss him. “You know you just said that all out loud?” Ikuya asks, his blush resurfacing in full force.  


“And now I want to die.” Hiyori says face palming.  


“Maybe we can go to dinner first?” Ikuya asks shyly. He’s looking at the ground so Hiyori can’t see what kind of expression Ikuya’s making. But Hiyori is sure that it’s a cute one.  


“I would like that.”  


“Good.” Ikuya says, and all of the tension seems to leave his body with that confirmation. He also finally let’s go of Hiyori’s arm, as if he hadn’t realized he was still holding onto it. “Sorry. I didn’t ruin your tattoo, did I?”  


Hiyori rolls his sleeve up. When he was gripping his own arm earlier, he hadn’t considered that it might scratch the recently inked design. Luckily his skin appears to be undamaged so nothing should scab. “It looks fine.”  


“Can I see it?”  


Hiyori realizes that he hasn’t shown Ikuya the finished tattoo yet. And he’s suddenly nervous again. It is one thing when he was worried that Ikuya would reject him, but it’s another thing to have Ikuya be disappointed in the design. Hiyori holds his arm out for Ikuya to inspect.  


Ikuya gently traces each of the flowers with a light touch. Hiyori gets goosebumps all over his arms. “You know, since I can see your workbench from the window, I’ve been watching you work on this for a while now.” Ikuya confesses. “I’ve always wanted to see these in person.”  


“And, now that you’ve seen them. What do you think?”  


Ikuya looks up at Hiyori. “They’re perfect.” He leans up until his lips are just barely touching Hiyori’s.  


“Aye!”  


Hiyori and Ikuya spring apart, both turning to look at the window. Hiyori sees a slightly flustered Kisumi pointing furiously at his watch. “Oh, shit.” Hiyori looks at the clock. His break was long over and now he’s going to have to face the wrath of his manager. “I have to go.”  


Hiyori gives Ikuya an apologetic look. “I’ll see you tomorrow then?”  


“Tomorrow.”  


Hiyori rushes towards the doors, pausing for a moment to return the soft kiss. Then he’s running back to the shop, ready to face his fate.

 

* * *

 Back in the flower shop, Ikuya doesn’t really know how to process the morning’s events. The only thing that really matters is that Ikuya was wrong. For the first time in his life, he’s happy that’s the case. Ikuya’s lips are still tingling from the sudden kiss.  


The sharp ring from the store phone pulls Ikuya out of his daze. He scrambles around the flowers to grab the phone off its cradle. “Hello? This is Ikuya Kirishima fro—“  


“Ah, Ikuya, it’s Hiyori.”  


Ikuya’s heart starts beating faster just from the sound of Hiyori’s voice in his ear. “Hi.” Is all he can get out.  


Hiyori chuckles, mumbling about something being cute. “Hi, I was wondering if you’re busy this weekend. I’d like to take you up on that dinner invite.”  


Ikuya’s going to have to give Hiyori his cellphone number. “I didn’t have anything planned so I can probably schedule you in, maybe around 12 at the café by the station?”  


Ikuya can basically hear Hiyori smiling through the phone. But he leans across the counter to look through the window anyways. Hiyori smiles a bit wider when he sees Ikuya. “I’ll be there.”


	2. Butt Tattoo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Drinking + Natsuya + A Wild Tattoo Idea = A chaotic Saturday Evening

It’s completely Natsuya’s fault. Everything’s usually Natsuya’s fault anyways. But this time. This time it is absolutely, 10000000%, Natsuya’s fault. 

Hiyori reminds himself of all the single brain celled decisions Natsuya’s made in the past two years of their friendship that would warrant this sort of treatment. And suddenly the slightly guilty feeling Hiyori had in the pits of his stomach disappears and his resolve returns.

“Hiyori, you know you don’t have to.” Ikuya says grabbing Hiyori’s attention with a slight tug on Hiyori’s shirt. Despite his words, Ikuya doesn’t seem too sad about Natsuya’s punishment. Hiyori is sure that Ikuya secretly is enjoying it as well.

Of course, the person enjoying this the most, is Nao. From over Ikuya’s shoulder, Hiyori has a clear view of Nao’s increasingly demonic aura. Nao is seated on Kisumi’s work chair, his long legs crossed elegantly, and a random glass of red wine in his hand. It might have been a simple black chair just moments ago. But Nao made it look like a regal throne. He also has an evil glint in his eye. Maybe it’s the way the light is shining off his glasses or the fact that his smile doesn’t quite reach his eyes.

Nao rarely got angry enough to show this side of his personality. But on the rare occasion that he did, Hiyori has to be there to witness the outcome, as long as it isn’t directed at him, because it’s usually dramatic and highly amusing to watch. Which is how all four of them all converged on the tattoo shop on a calm Saturday evening.

“Tono-kun~” Natsuya slurs from the tattoo bench. His cheeks are flushed a bright red and he’s already tipping over the edge of the work bench again. “I swear on my mother’s grave that I want this!”

“Our mother isn’t dead.” Ikuya retorts, pulling Natsuya back onto the bench. “Stop saying that. You’ve obviously had way too much to drink.”

“NO~!” Natsuya says pushing Ikuya’s hands away from him. Even when Natsuya’s inebriated, he still has the strength to push Ikuya a few steps back without much effort. Natsuya suddenly sits up straight and his goofy drunk face is replaced with his serious face. “I know what I’m doing, little brother.”

To anyone else, this could have passed as a completely sober statement. Unfortunately, Natsuya is in the presence of the three people who know better than to trust this façade of seriousness. Ikuya rolls his eyes, he did his duty to try to talk Natsuya out of this idea.

Hiyori and Ikuya look over at Nao, who has been sipping on his wine the entire time. “I’ve already tried.” He says simply and holds up a half empty bottle of rather expensive wine. “This bottle was full earlier. And now, I’m going to finish it.” He pours himself another full glass.

Hiyori sighs and accepts his fate. “I’m going to have you sign this waiver, Natsuya-kun.” Hiyori says sliding open the top drawer to his desk and pulls out a blank waiver form. They explain the tattooing process and that the client understands the situation they are getting themselves into.

In this case, Hiyori also needs documentation that Natsuya is the one who is forcing this tattoo onto himself. When Natsuya wakes up from his drunken haze and finally gets over his day-long hang over, Natsuya can will only have himself to blame when he sees the tattoos.  

“Done~” Natsuya scribbles what could barely be called a signature across the bottom of the paper. “Now, tattoo time!”

Hiyori barely has time to set the waiver on his desk before Natsuya jumps off the bench and, in one smooth motion, drops his pants and underwear. Fortunately, Hiyori’s desk is on the other side of the work bench, so he doesn’t get a full frontal view, unlike Ikuya, who releases a slightly unholy shriek.

“NATSUYA!” A series of profanities and curses follow as Ikuya covers his eyes and runs to the other side of the shop. He’s yanking the curtains facing the street closed just in case a poor soul decides to come through the area while Natsuya is exposing himself proudly.

“Natsuya.” Nao says coldly, unfazed by Natsuya’s drunken antics. “Bench, now.”

Natsuya does a mock salute and gets back on the bench, lying face down, his butt still exposed to the air. “All yours, Tono-kun.”

Hiyori rubs his temples, he can already feel a headache coming on, and he hasn’t even started tattooing yet. “Hiyori.” Nao says, planting a firm hand on Hiyori’s shoulder. Hiyori can smell the sweet red wine wafting up from Nao. “Do your best.”

“I will try, senpai.” Hiyori stutters out. He busies himself with setting up the various needle tips and colors he’s planning to use. Hiyori has a vague idea of what a tiger shark looks like. And a quick search through the shop’s reference books gives Hiyori plenty of images to work with.

The other tattoo Natsuya is adamant about is the tricky part. The description Natsuya gives is vague at best and the fact that he keeps saying “Nao, but a bird Nao” doesn’t help at all. Hiyori vaguely recalls Natsuya talking about some seabird he’s been obsessing over recently. Natsuya had randomly learned about it at the aquarium and it’s all he’s been talking about for the past several days.

Hiyori absently flips through a book on birds until he finds the one, the northern garnet. The baby headache that was starting to form behind Hiyori’s eyeballs becomes a full blown migraine at the sight of the bird. It’s white, gray, and black with bits of orange. And it has a face that makes Hiyori want to cry.

Immediately, Hiyori decides to not do realistic animal tattoos. Natsuya hadn’t actually said anything about the style or size of the tattoos. In fact, all Natsuya said was that he wanted one on each cheek and they had to be facing each other because “they were in love~.”

Hiyori’s eye physically twitches at the memory. Natsuya was already tipsy when he came up with this grand idea. He and Nao were having a small lovers’ spat, and Natsuya thought the best way to win back Nao’s love was to hijack Hiyori’s romantic evening with Ikuya, and dedicate a butt tattoo to Nao.

Ikuya quietly pulls up a chair next to Hiyori and watches intently as Hiyori sketches the two animal designs out. “You don’t have to try so hard.” Ikuya says once Hiyori is done.

“What do you mean?” The designs are super rough, compared to Hiyori’s usual work. He only has the basic shape of a seabird for the northern gannet tattoo and the tiger shark has only its distinctive side-body markings.

“You’re making these look too good.” Ikuya pouts.

Hiyori wouldn’t really consider these good. But his perfectionist nature doesn’t allow him to adamantly make ugly tattoos. “I’ll let you pick the colors, then.”

Hiyori goes off to make the stencils he’ll use to initially draw the designs onto Natsuya’s butt while Ikuya mulls over the various colors Hiyori has at his disposal. By the time Hiyori comes back, Ikuya has set aside only two colors, yellow and gray.

“You’re not making this easy for me.” Hiyori sits back on his chair and tries to come up with a quick plan using only the two colors.

“You should have said no then.”

Hiyori decides to just do outlines and some light shading. It is simple and fast. And Hiyori doesn’t want to spend any more time staring at Natsuya’s butt than he already has to. Hiyori lays his stencils on the cheeks, adjusting the placement ever so slightly. Once he’s satisfied he goes in first with the yellow for the tiger shark.

Hiyori barely gets the needle into Natsuya’s skin when he lets out a high pitched scream. It startles Hiyori so much he almost drops his instrument. Hiyori and Ikuya trade bewildered looks, wondering what exactly just happened.

“Just keep going.” Nao says, pulling up his chair next to the bench. Wine glass and bottle in one hand and his other hand slips into Natsuya’s. He gives them a reassuring, yet still frightening, smile as if Natsuya hadn’t just screamed his lungs out. “Hiyori. Keep going.”

Hiyori immediately turns his attention back to the butt in front of him. He touches the tip of his needle back onto the skin and he barely makes a mark before Natsuya screams again. And again, Hiyori stops at the sound.

“Keep going.” Nao says simply, drinking straight from the bottle, as if unholy screams weren’t coming out of Natsuya’s mouth.

“This is going to be a long night.”

Hiyori pushes his needle back into the skin, and this time, he ignores Natsuya’s screams. Hiyori had thought that Natsuya might tire from screaming or, at least, do them the favor and just pass out. But no, he stays conscious the entire time and he screams the entire time.

And it isn’t just a yelp or something of that nature. It is a full on, entire lung capacity scream each time. Occasionally Nao’s name gets dropped in between screams. And Hiyori is seriously starting to worry that someone might call the police and then they’re going to have to explain the afterhours butt tattoo.

Hiyori decides to take a break after the tiger shark is done. Mainly for the sake of their ears. Natsuya just lays on the bench contently. He’s on the verge of passing out. And Hiyori really hopes he does them the favor and passes out so that the next tattoo can be completed in silence. But, of course, you can’t depend on Natsuya to pass out when you need him to either. So they do the next best thing.

Which was gagging Natsuya with his own jacket. And somehow, even with the gag, they could still hear his screams loud and clear. “He’s still going.” Ikuya says slowly, watching his brother with a mixture of horror and awe.

“Why won’t he stop?” Hiyori groans, stopping to wipe the excess ink off the skin. His head is hurting so much that he could feel the pain in his eye bags, his eye bags! Hiyori mentally steels himself and presses the needle into the butt check, the scream pierces through any mental fortitude he tried to put up.

Hiyori glances over at Nao. “I can’t stop him.” Nao says simply, setting down the empty wine bottle. He gently pets Natsuya’s hand, which is tightly gripped in his own hand. This only irks Hiyori even more, because he knows that Nao is probably just messing with them.

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

Nao flashes Hiyori a very pleasant smile. “Of course I am. Not only did he forget our anniversary, but he was also drinking beer in the afternoon, and then got drunk from the sake at the sushi restaurant. Then he thought he could make for everything with a ‘show of extreme love’.”

Hiyori gets the feeling that this ‘show of extreme love’ was definitely working on Nao, in some way. Natsuya instinctively smiles, as if he knows that it’s working too. And Hiyori immediately pushes the needle back into the skin.

It doesn’t take much more work to finish the stupid sea bird. Hiyori has never been so happy to finish a tattoo as he is in this moment. Not only did it mean that Hiyori’s face would no longer be inches away from Natsuya’s butt, but it also means that he could finally hear himself think again.  There is actually a slight buzz in his ear from the sudden silence in the air.

“What should we do now?” Ikuya asks as the three of them watch Natsuya slides himself slowly off the work bench, still completely pants-less. It’s amazing how fluidly he is able to move, before he promptly passes out and just crumples onto the floor rather ungracefully. “Can we just leave him like this?”

As much as Hiyori would want to, he really should clean his equipment, not to mention deep sanitizing the work bench, possibly even burning it at this point. “We really shouldn’t.” But he really wants to. It’s exactly what Natsuya deserves at this point. “Will he alright?”

“Probably not.” Nao says nonchalantly. “He’s going to be particularly useless tomorrow.” He’s, somehow, completely sober. Unlike his passed out boyfriend who is sprawled across the floor. “I’ll get him back into his pants.”

Ikuya immediately gets to work spraying the entire bench down in alcohol, making sure to properly dose the work area until it is dripping in liquid. He scrubs the bench vigourously, as if he’s trying to remove the fabric itself from the support underneath. Hiyori busies himself with putting his cleaning his tattoo machine first with disinfectant and then with alcohol.

They work in general silence beyond the soft snore and yelp coming from Natsuya. Hiyori finishes the clean by putting a bag over his machine, letting it sit comfortably on his holder next to his desk.

“It’s going to be a bit difficult for him to sit for a while,” Hiyori says once Natsuya finally has his pants back on. “I’ll give you some pain relieving wipes and don’t forget to remind him to put this ointment on it in the morning.” He hands Nao the store’s brand of wipes and ointments.

The only thing left is to someone get Natsuya’s limp, dead body, back to the Kirishima apartment. It takes the combined effort of all three of them to get Natsuya back onto his feet and draped limply over Nao and Ikuya’s shoulders. Even then, both of them still struggle to carry Natsuya’s full weight and his feet are still dragging slightly on the floor.

Hiyori carries his and Ikuya’s bag as they all trudge towards the station. Luckily the Kirishima apartment is only two stations away and the apartment complex had an elevator system. At least, that was one less set of stairs.

The Kirishima apartment quite spacious, but still homey from all the small trinkets that Natsuya likes to collect along with Ikuya’s big leafy plants in every corner. Nao and Ikuya immediately make their way towards Natusya’s room. From the kitchen, Hiyori could hear a few swear words and a loud thud before Ikuya reappears, stretching his arms above his head.

“What happened?” Hiyori asks curiously, setting the kettle on the stove. They were just about to have dessert when Natsuya had called earlier.  

“We dropped him on the bed, he missed.” Ikuya says rummaging through the fridge for the pistachio cake Hiyori had made for them. “Mmm, I’ve been waiting all night for this.”

Hiyori chuckles at Ikuya’s clear addiction to pistachio flavored things. He even has pistachio creamer for his coffee, it was cute.

Ikuya gives Hiyori an odd look. “You were talking out loud again.”

“Ah, I’m sorry.”

“It’s ok.” Ikuya says, focusing on meticulously cutting perfect cake slices. “I don’t really mind.”

Hiyori could see the slight blush in Ikuya’s ears. It contrasts nicely with the dark teal of Ikuya’s hair. “Cute.” The blush gets darker.

Hiyori brews their coffee with a pour over setup. Pistachio creamer and two spoons of sugar for Ikuya, plain creamer for Hiyori, and straight black coffee for Nao. Three cups of steaming coffee and three perfect slices of chilled pistachio cake. A perfect end to a truly chaotic evening.

 

* * *

 

“Tono-kun, will you come over tonight?” Natsuya asks one day, lugging something large and heavy through the door of the tattoo shop. He waves at Kisumi and several other tattooists on his way over to Hiyori’s desk.  “I need your help with something important.”

“I wasn’t planning to.” Hiyori says slowly, eyeing the large wrapped item suspiciously. For one reason or another, Nao didn’t fill in the gaps in Natsuya’s memory of the tattoo session. And, to Hiyori’s knowledge, Natsuya never noticed the tattoos either.

Though, Natsuya did complain about his butt aching for a while.

“Well, I want to hang this up for Nao.” Natsuya pats the rectangular item lovingly at the mention of Nao’s name. “So I need to hide it from him for a bit.”

“What is it?” Kisumi asks coming up to look at the package. “It looks heavy.”

Natsuya laughs, embarrassed. “Nao wants to get a mirror for our bedroom when we move in together, so when I saw this, I thought it would be perfect chance to test it out.”

Kisumi gives Hiyori a knowing look. “Oh?” Hiyori hadn’t wanted to tell anyone about that night, but an empty wine bottle and a limping Natsuya definitely didn’t escape Kisumi’s perceptive eyes.

“I don’t mind coming to help.” Hiyori interjects, not needing to hear any more about the mirror and why Nao would want it in their bedroom. He already has a pretty good idea why and he’s sure Kisumi knows as well.

“You’re the best, Tono-kun!” Natsuya ruffles Hiyori’s hair. He looks around the store. “Don’t tell the manager!” And makes a beeline to the back storage room. Hiyori is going to get into so much trouble if his manager finds out.

KIsumi rolls his chair up next to Hiyori’s “a mirror in the bedroom, eh?” He wiggles his eyebrow suggestively. “You think it’s because of the you-know-what on his you-know-where?”

Hiyori swats him away as Natsuya comes back out. “Don’t forget to buy some snacks! I’ll bring the beer!”

“Ah, sure.” Hiyori waves as Natsuya runs back next door to the flower shop. “See you.”

Hiyori isn’t surprised to enter the Kirishima apartment that evening and see Natsuya already making his way through a can of beer. “Natsuya-kun, are you sure you should be drinking so early? We haven’t even done any work yet.” He puts his grocery bag of snacks on the counter, which Natsuya immediately descends on.

“Just one is fine!” Natsuya exclaims, digging through the bag and opening some seaweed snacks. “I’m going to prepare some refreshments, Ikuya’s cleaning some stuff in my room right now.”

Hiyori wanders down the hall, Natsuya’s room is at the end to the left. The door is open, as usual, and Ikuya is wiping dust off the mirror Natsuya had bought. “Hey.” He drops a bottle of sweet tea into Ikuya’s lap, pulling Ikuya’s attention out of his daze.

“Hiyori.” Ikuya seems to brighten a bit. He breaks the seal of the bottle and takes a sip. “What do you think?”

“I don’t particularly want to think about Natsuya-kun and Nao-senpai’s private life more than I already have to.” Hiyori says. Though, the mirror is quite beautiful. An antique style with an intricate vine and floral design across the dark wooden border. There are light gold accents here and there that reflect the sunlight shining in from the window. “It’s definitely Nao-senpai’s style, though.”

Ikuya leans his head against Hiyori’s shoulder. “I thought so too.” Hiyori can smell the scent of flowers wafting up from Ikuya skin. It’s a comfortable scent. “I heard that they’re planning to move in together.”

Hiyori hums in agreement. “Not until Nao-senpai gets a permanent job here. He’s still doing a lot of traveling for his job right now.” They sit in silence, Hiyori absentmindedly playing with Ikuya’s long fingers. “So, what do you think you’ll do if Natsuya-kun moves out?”

Ikuya doesn’t’ respond immediately. “I don’t know.” He says finally, Hiyori could feel Ikuya’s head shifting on his shoulder. “Would you like to move in together?”

Hiyori glances down at Ikuya. He’s met with Ikuya’s bright questioning eyes.

“I leave you two alone for a few minutes and you’re already getting comfortable in my room.” Natsuya exclaims entering the room. Ikuya and Hiyori spring apart from each other at the sound of Natsuya’s voice. “Here, I brought drinks and some of Hiyori’s snacks.”

Natsuya sets the refreshment tray on the ground next to Hiyori. “So what do you guys think? It’s good right?”

Hiyori can only nod, his heart still feels like it’s beating out of his chest. Actually, shouldn’t his heart be beating out of his chest when Ikuya asked him to move in together?

“So what’s your plan?” Ikuya asks, reaching over Hiyori for a cookie. “I don’t think we’re allowed to do permanent damage on these walls.”

Natsuya smirks triumphantly. “Don’t worry, dear brother, I already thought of that!” Natsuya reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a set of wall hooks. “I bought these to use instead, they stick to the wall and they’re sturdy, and no damage at all!”

Hiyori and Ikuya clap in unison. “Nice job, Natsuya-kun.” Hiyori says in fake awe.

“Thank you.” Natsuya says, tearing into the packaging. He steps around the two of them and holds a hook up to the wall. “I was thinking right around here? That way we can have a full view of the bed in it.”

“Why would you want a full view of the bed?” Ikuya asks innocently.

Now it is Hiyori’s turn to bury is head into Ikuya’s shoulder. Mainly because he wants to die from the embarrassment of knowing exactly what Natsuya and Nao will be using the mirror for. And that is 10000% more information than Hiyori wanted to know about them. “I’ll explain it to you when you’re older.”

Natsuya laughs, ruffling Ikuya’s hair. “You don’t need to worry about it just yet.” He peels the seal of the sticky side of the hook and presses it dramatically against the wall. “Let’s do this!”

Ikuya gives them both an irritated look, but doesn’t push the issue any further. Hiyori and Ikuya hold up a measuring tape to make sure the hooks are in a nice even row, while Natsuya sticks the hooks, with rather uneven spacing, onto the wall. Ikuya makes a face at the haphazard row of hooks.

“Don’t worry, no one’s going to see it.” Natsuya says nonchalantly, pressing the last hook onto the wall. “As long as it does the job, then it’s fine. Tono-kun, can you get the other side?”

They carefully grip each side of the mirror, lifting it slowly off the ground. It’s definitely heavier than it looks. Hiyori tightens his grip as they lift the mirror up to shoulder height, his arms burning with exersion. The steel wire on the backside of the mirror rests nicely on the hooks and Hiyori slowly lets go of his side, Natsuya does the same, and they take a step back from the mirror.

The mirror sways back and forth a bit before settling against the wall. “Perfect!” Natsuya says picking up his can of beer and taking a celebratory sip. “I should tell Nao, I have the feeling he’s going to really like it.”

Hiyori yawns, hoping that this is the end of Natsuya’s chronicle of chaos. “Hiyori, do you want to take a nap before dinner?” Ikuya asks, his head tilted towards the room across from Natsuya’s. “I’m also a little tired.”

“Yeah, I would love to.” Hiyori says, following Ikuya into his room. Ikuya’s room has a dark blue color scheme making it feel cool and calming. It’s sparsely decorated with a basic furniture set in a dark colored wood. A few small potted plants decorate the tops of his dresser and desk.

Up against one wall is the bed, complete with thick plush pillows and an old bed set that is worn just enough to be super comfortable to sleep on. Ikuya immediately plops down onto his bed, burying his face deep into a pillow. “I hope this is the end for a while.” Ikuya rolls over, giving Hiyori room to lay on the bed next to him. Ikuya pats the open spot.

Hiyori doesn’t need a second invitation and gently settles down next to Ikuya. The bed has a fresh linen scent mixed with Hiyori’s light floral scent. “I haven’t forgotten what you said before, about living together.” Hiyori watches Ikuya advert his gaze, settling to look in the area just past Hiyori’s head.

“Did you think it was too soon?” Ikuya asks quietly, almost in a whisper. “I don’t want you to feel pressured or anything.”

“I don’t feel pressured.” Hiyori says, brushing a hand against Ikuya’s. Ikuya looks back at Hiyori’s face. “I would like it if we could live together. I could bake cakes and make you try new recipes, you could have a garden on the balcony and raise all your plants, and we can do this every day.”

Ikuya leans forward, pressing his face against the area where Hiyori’s neck meets the pillow. “I’d really like that.” He mumbles against the pillow. “Maybe we should also get a bedroom mirror?”

Hiyori laughs sleepily. His eyes are heavy and his brain is too tired to explain why that is _not_ a good idea. “How about we find an apartment together first?”

“Ok.”

**Author's Note:**

> Language of Flowers used: 
> 
> Gardenias: secret or untold love  
> Roses (specifically lavender colored): enchantment and love at first sight, also a sense of wonder and impossibility  
> Roses (specifically the number 6): infatuation or "I want to be yours"  
> Forget Me Nots: true and undying love, connections that last through time
> 
> I hope you enjoyed! Happy Valentine's Day~


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